Barriers to the Use of Computer Assisted Learning

This paper summarizes the results of a recent evaluation study on the use of computer assisted learning at the Open University. Our main finding is that students have a realistic view of the educational benefits of computer assisted learning and also of the practical problems associated with its use. These include: physical access, a variety of user interface standards and frustrating computer experiences leading to a fear of its use. We conclude by making some recommendations which would allow computer assisted learning to achieve its potential in the Open University and in distance learning generally.     

Classroom restructuring: What do teachers really need?

This article describes the results of a needs analysis carried out to determine the requirements of teachers who wish to restructure their classrooms. The article also describes Strategic Teaching Frameworks (STF), a hypermedia computer system that is intended to have a profound impact on professional development for teachers in the United States. STF was designed according to the results of the needs analysis. The needs analysis consisted of interviews with 30 teachers who have changed or are in the process of changing their classrooms. The interviews focused on the nature of the teachers' changes and the tools and resources they used to support those changes. Two of the most important resources are the ability to look at other classrooms and the ability to collaborate with colleagues. The interviews also sought to discover what resources the teachers found lacking; among these are time and financial support.This research was supported in part by a contract with the North Central Regional Education Laboratory. The authors would especially like to thank Beau Jones and Randy Knuth for their contributions to the needs assessment and the design of STF. The interviews that make up the needs analysis were conducted by Buck F. Brown, Tammy Chaney, William Prigge, Thomas M. Welsh, and Barry J. Fishman.     

Teachers' perceived usefulness of strategy microanalytic assessment information

The current study examined special education teachers' ratings of the usefulness of strategy microanalytic assessment (SMA) (i.e., self‐regulation, strategy use) and standardized norm‐referenced assessment information (SNRA) (i.e., cognitive and academic skills). Ninety‐six participants separately rated the frequency with which SMA and SNRA are used in schools and the usefulness of each report [i.e., Teacher Rating Questionnaire (TRQ)] for intervention planning about a case study. A mixed model experimental design revealed that even though SNRA information is more typical of the data provided in evaluation reports/Individualized Educational Programs, the SMA data were rated significantly more helpful than the SNRA for enhancing important school‐related outcomes (e.g., test performance) as well as teacher‐related roles (e.g., developing instructional plans). Despite the participants' consistent preference for SMA information, their overall TRQ ratings of the SNRA were positive. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 149–155, 2006.     

Gender differences in teacher-student interactions in science classrooms

Thirty physical science and 30 chemistry classes, which contained a total of 1332 students, were observed using the Brophy-Good Teacher-Child Dyadic Interaction System. Classroom interactions were examined for gender differences that may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in physics and engineering courses and subsequent careers. The Brophy-Good coding process allows for examination of patterns of interactions for individuals and groups of pupils. An analysis of variance of the data yielded a significant main effect for teacher praise, call outs, procedural questions, and behavioral warnings based on the sex of the student and a significant teacher-sex main effect for direct questions. Significant two-way interactions were found for the behavioral warning variable for teacher sex and subject by student sex. Female teachers warned male students significantly more than female students. Male teachers warned both genders with similar frequency. Male students also received significantly more behavioral warnings in physical science classes than female students. In chemistry classes, both male and female students received approximately the same number of behavioral warnings.     

Why context matters: a comparative perspective on education reform and policy implementation

This article explores the significance of context within the process of contemporary education reform and policy-making. It draws upon evidence from a comparative study of educational change and transformation in seven education systems: Australia, England, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore. The article focuses on school leadership preparation, training, and development, which has become a policy priority and central improvement strategy in many education systems. The article explores how seven education systems are using this strategy to promote school and system improvement. The article reflects upon the centrality of context in the process of policy implementation and in the broader pursuit of system transformation. The article concludes that more contextually appropriate approaches to educational policy selection are needed and that borrowing approaches from other countries many bring unintended consequences and unfortunate side effects. Further, the article concludes that the process of policy implementation, in context, requires far more attention, if the intended outcomes are to be achieved.     

Terminus Amnesia: Cherokee Freedmen,Citizenship, and Education

In 2007, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma amended its constitution to limit membership to only those who can trace lineal descent to an individual listed as Cherokee by Blood on the final Dawes Rolls. This exercise of sovereignty paradoxically ties the Dawes Rolls, the colonial instruments used to divide the lands and peoples of the Cherokee Nation, and self-determination. In the process, it effectively disenrolls Cherokee Freedmen, the descendants of Blacks enslaved by the Cherokee Nation. In this article, we explore the implications of this history in the context of self-determination and sovereignty, particularly looking at the influence of colorism on the Dawes Rolls and its ongoing effects. Our goal is to share a piece of history that is often obscured or unknown; to explore how and to what extent the exercise of self-determination and sovereignty in Indigenous nations is impacted by colorism; and finally to consider implications for practice created by the disenfranchisement of peoples from Indigenous nations.     

How can comprehension adjunct questions focus students' attention and enhance concept learning of a computer-animated science lesson?

Two focusing hypotheses were evaluated. First, do adjunct questions, focusing on science concepts and inserted after computer-animated sequences, selectively alter students' attentional or practice processing and thus produce differential learning effects? Theoretically, such questions selectively focus students' attention and enhance concept learning of focused concepts. Second, do these questions still provide enough metacognitive scaffolding to produce differential learning effects when only the first 8 out of 12 sequences are followed by focusing questions? Eighth-grade students (n = 160) were randomly assigned to a control group (lesson alone) or one of four treatment groups (lesson plus 12 questions focusing either on heat or on temperature, or lesson plus the same first 8 questions on heat or temperature followed by 4 placebo questions). Two significant two-way interactions with widely varying F ratios supported the differential focusing hypotheses (12 questions—more robust interaction, 8—less robust interaction).     

Preseason changes in markers of lower body fatigue and performance in young professional rugby union players

This study investigated the changes in measures of neuromuscular fatigue and physical performance in young professional rugby union players during a preseason training period. Fourteen young (age: 19.1?±?1.2 years) professional rugby union players participated in the study. Changes in measures of lower body neuromuscular fatigue (countermovement jump (CMJ) mean power, mean force, flight-time) and physical performance (lower body strength, 40?m sprint velocity) were assessed during an 11-week preseason period using magnitude-based inferences. CMJ mean power was likely to very likely decreased during week 2 (?8.1?±?5.5% to ?12.5?±?6.8%), and likely to almost certainly decreased from weeks 5 to 11 (?10?±?4.3% to ?14.7?±?6.9%), while CMJ flight-time demonstrated likely to very likely decreases during weeks 2, and weeks 4–6 (?2.41?±?1% to ?3.3?±?1.3%), and weeks 9–10 (?1.9?±?0.9% to ?2.2?±?1.5%). Despite this, possible improvements in lower body strength (5.8?±?2.7%) and very likely improvements in 40?m velocity (5.5?±?3.6%) were made. Relationships between changes in CMJ metrics and lower body strength or 40?m sprint velocity were trivial or small (<0.22). Increases in lower body strength and 40?m velocity occurred over the course of an 11-week preseason despite the presence of neuromuscular fatigue (as measured by CMJ). The findings of this study question the usefulness of CMJ for monitoring fatigue in the context of strength and sprint velocity development. Future research is needed to ascertain the consequences of negative changes in CMJ in the context of rugby-specific activities to determine the usefulness of this test as a measure of fatigue in this population.     

Activity theory,complexity and sports coaching: an epistemology for a discipline

The aim of this article is twofold. First, it is to advance the case for activity theory (AT) as a credible and alternative lens to view and research sports coaching. Second, it is to position this assertion within the wider debate about the epistemology of coaching. Following a framing introduction, a more comprehensive review of the development and current conceptualisation of AT is given. Here, AT's evolution through three distinct phases and related theorists, namely Vygotsky, Leont'ev and Engeström, is initially traced. This gives way to a more detailed explanation of AT's principal conceptual components, including ‘object’, ‘subject’, ‘tools’ (mediating artefacts), ‘rules’, a ‘community’ and a ‘division of labour’. An example is then presented from empirical work illustrating how AT can be used as a means to research sports coaching. The penultimate section locates such thinking within coaching's current ‘epistemological debate, arguing that the coaching ‘self’ is not an autonomous individual, but a relative part of social and cultural arrangements. Finally, a conclusion summarises the main points made, particularly in terms in presenting the grounding constructivist epistemology of AT as a potential way forward for sports coaching.